This week I’ve got some special songs for fathers and a visit with some of my nieces and nephews!
https://youtu.be/83-lmv3EPng

Hope to see you today!
-Phil

The last two kids of the season were born on June 4th at dusk. Mocha hung around in the pen all day and picked out a nice cozy little corner where she dug herself a pit to lay in. And then she laid in it. And did nothing else. Phil and I kept waiting for her to start pushing but she was determined to take her pretty time. Eventually it got late enough that we had to put all the goats in the pen with Mocha. Finally something started to happen, but when Phil and I came out to attend the birth, all the older baby goats rushed over and began climbing all over us! This would not be a peaceful, quiet birth! So at the last second, with the water broken and a sac peeking out, Phil and I dragged poor Mocha away from her chosen spot and away from the pen so she could deliver without baby goats jumping on her head. I ended up having to assist the birth a little bit. I’m not sure if things were already delayed or if moving Mocha mid-delivery messed baby up, but the kid was stuck like a cork with nose and feet all trying to come out at once. I pushed the head back a bit and gave the legs a tug and with a  few extra pulls, Baby #1 entered the world!

Mocha was surprisingly dramatic. I expected her to be the strong, stoic type, but instead she stretched out on the ground, threw her head back, and bawled as though the delivery had almost killed her. I had to pull on her collar to convince her to sit up and take a look at the new kid. Once she saw the new baby she was smitten and forgot about feeling sorry for herself.
The new kid was a girl about 7.5 lbs and extremely lively! She was standing in less than five minutes and within fifteen minutes she was already starting to hop. I’ve never seen one pop up so fast!

Baby #2 emerged without drama a few minutes later. Another girl! The girls definitely have the upper hand this year! Out of eight kids born in 2021, six are girls and only two are boys. We were not prepared for this unbalanced ratio when we went with a “Return to Treasure Island” theme. There aren’t many female characters in that series. Isabella and Conchita are the only named female roles. Isabella got taken by Snowball’s girl and we have Diamond, Ruby, and Sapphire since those particular jewels are mentioned repeatedly throughout the series. We settled on Conchita for Mocha’s second kid, but what should we name the first? For that one we had to dig deep. In the middle of the series Long John Silver reminisces about his wife–a “woman of color” mentioned briefly in the original Robert Louis Stevenson novel and expounded on in a short but very powerful conversation in the TV series. In the show, Silver says, “Ashanti she were” and it’s unclear if he is referring to her tribe or her name, but that’s what we went with.

Skeeter takes her job as herd queen very seriously. She stood by the gate and watched the proceedings with intense interest. She always wants to know what’s going on in her herd and how many new babies there are.

When the birth was over we took Mocha back into the pen and set her up cozily in one of the sheds where she could bond with her new family.

Skeeter followed us over and stood with her head through the gate to make sure Mocha was doing everything right.

Diamond takes after her mother in more than just looks! She wanted to supervise too!

Many baby goat adventures & my first hike out with Scout & Sonic!  Should be fun!
https://youtu.be/5epmrJQSHhk

See you on Sunday, the usual time!  (Or maybe a bit later …)
-Phil

Lots of fun in the stream today!  Mocha’s new kids, goat fights, and more!
https://youtu.be/Ux0xIy3OaLg

Hope to see you there!
-Phil

We have been blessed with an abundance of moisture throughout this past spring. Regular small snow storms hit us throughout March and April, and May came with several long, soaking rains that saturated the already soggy ground and brought grass to places I thought could never be green again.

The goats have been enjoying the lush pasture!
Meet the Three Stooges! From left to right we’ve got Ruby, Sapphire, and Diamond. If our place is a circus, these three are the head clowns! We have a hard time photographing them because they won’t stop jumping on us. They LOVE any kind of attention and if anyone sits down for even a second, they will immediately find themselves covered in muddy little cloven hoofprints from twelve little muddy cloven hooves.

Ben Gunn is an old soul trapped in a young body. He looks like a baby, but don’t let his youthful appearance fool you! When the madcap girls are jumping all over us, Ben Gunn keeps a stoic distance, grazing maturely with the adult goats. He doesn’t even do much rough-and-tumble with the other goats when people are not there! He prefers to butt heads with the big goats and all that baby stuff is beneath him. For all that, he’s not unfriendly. He loves it when I sit quietly with him when the girls aren’t around, and big as he is, he’ll still climb in my lap as long as his crazy sister isn’t jumping on his head.

In one night of rain our neighbor’s nearly-empty pond filled almost to capacity. The next day it filled even more. We haven’t seen it this full since 2017.

Scout sure has been looking grown-up and pretty lately!

“Yes, I’m gorgeous!” he says.

Oh… he’s not posing. He’s just looking to see if Phil has a cookie for him.

Snowball has been keeping her kids closely confined to one of the shelters. This was understandable during this past weekend of constant rain, but now the babies are over a week old and they need some fresh air and sunshine! I evicted them from the shed this afternoon and forced their mother to take them on an outing around the property. They were delighted to finally be allowed to tag along with the big goats!

I can’t get over this little gals’ stunning markings!

Sputnik got worm medicine this morning and has a sulk on.

Finn hides and says, “Don’t give me any worm medicine!”

What’s all this??
It appears that a Loch Ness Monster moved into our lawn!!

I saw this guy advertised for $100 in the Pueblo classifieds and I couldn’t resist. Saturday was me and Phil’s 22nd wedding anniversary and we decided to make a day of it and get ourselves an anniversary present. We drove out with the horse trailer to pick this guy up (he’s solid concrete and pretty heavy!!) and we went out for lunch and ice cream and mini golf before returning home with our prize. We had to bury it a bit because of the slope and to make sure goats can’t knock it over on each other.

Phil and I think this piece looks great in our front yard.

The goats aren’t so sure. Are Ziggy and Sonic brave enough to come in for a closer look?

Aw… Ruby thinks Nessie needs a kiss!

Diamond thinks she found a friend.

Baby goat attack!

Dusty was pretty interested in the dragon for a while too. Pepperjack was more interested in grass and is therefore not in the photo.

We we were a little tired on Wednesday after delivering these wee ones in the wee hours, but they were worth it! With a little help from me pulling on their legs, Snowball delivered a big, strong baby boy followed by a small but also strong baby girl. Both kids were up and nursing in short order after Phil and I helped dry them off. We were able to spend a bit more time enjoying them the next day.  

We’re calling the little doeling “Isabella”. She looks remarkably like her grandmother Tigerlily, but with more black down her back. She also has little black spots throughout her white coat that remind me of a Dalmatian. I’ve always wanted a Dalmatian but they aren’t very well suited to our situation. Perhaps a Dalmatian-spotted goat would do.
She loves to sniff faces. Her brother is happy just to lay in laps.


Isabella also likes to hog the camera. I had a much harder time getting pictures of her brother Hawkins.

But then, who can resist this adorable face? It’s hard NOT to take too many pictures of a goat this cute! Look at those little puppy ears!


The photo is a little too clear to make it obvious, but when we look at the top of this little head through the somewhat blurry lense of the Goat-O-Scope we see two decoy happy eyes, or maybe some arched eyebrows looking back up at us. It won’t last long, but it’s funny in the meantime.

Hawkins would rather chill than mug for the camera. It’s hard to know what color this little guy will be. He’s similar to his daddy, Scout. Scout had a charcoal-colored back end but when he grew older it shedded out to solid black and now he’s a classic cou blanc. Hawkins will for sure be darker in the front than his daddy, but it remains to be seen what color the back half will end up. He also has a crinkled right ear that I might have to fix. Flop ears are ok. Pinched-together ears not so much. I had to fix Snowball’s pinched right ear when she was a kid too.

Get ready for some fun this afternoon!  New kids, a hike, goat tower fun, and a new exciting piece of yard art!
https://youtu.be/5ESQ6e_KhRk

-Phil

New arrivals came around 12:30/1:00 this morning!  Snowball blessed us with a lovely two-tone chamoise buckling (9 lbs.) and a stunning white and black spotted doeling (7 lbs.). Everyone is doing well!

It was a full super moon last night and the sky was clear and the air was warm. I took Dusty out for a moonlight ride last night and I’m so glad I did! Not only was it spectacular, but it meant my final check on Snowball was later than usual. On a normal night we’d have been asleep when she started labor! Sticking with the “Return to Treasure Island” theme, I believe we’ll be calling these two Hawkins and Isabella.

Hey y’all!  Hope you had a great week!  The baby goats have gone wild and are now attacking us!

Join me today to see them be wild and also to hear some updated fiddle tune backtracks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6p1UPI6G2A

See you soon!
-Phil